French Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard will play Lady Macbeth, opposite Michael
Fassbender in a new film adaptation of Shakespeare's play.

Actress Marion Cotillard is to replace Natalie Portman as Lady Macbeth in a new screen adaptation of Shakespeare's most famous tragedy, opposite Michael Fassbender, the film's production company has told The Telegraph.

The French actress will star as one of the stage’s most complex female characters under the direction of Australian Justin Kurzel. Kurzel won accolades for his 2011 film Snowtown, a crime horror film which depicted the true story of a series of murders in the titular South Australian town in the 1990s.

Kurzel said of the announcement, "I feel extremely blessed that Marion is joining our film. She is one of the bravest and most compelling actors I have watched in recent years and I cannot wait to collaborate with both her and Michael in bringing to screen this very human and tragic love story."

Cotillard's involvement has been confirmed after Portman was initially tied to the role. Cotillard won an Oscar in 2007 for her portrayal of Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose; more recently she has starred in Rust and Bone and The Dark Knight Rises.

The film will be produced by See-Saw, the same company responsible for The King's Speech, who Fassbender worked with previously, on Shame, where he played a successful New York executive with a secret sex addiction.

See-Saw said "Marion has proven extraordinary versatility through her stunning performances in La Vie en Rose and Rust and Bone. Casting her as Lady Macbeth alongside Michael Fassbender will bring a fresh and exciting dynamic to the story of lovers pulled apart by war and ambition."

Flming will begin in the UK in January 2014 with StudioCanal financing the majority of the picture along with Film4, whose Contoller of Film and Drama, Tessa Ross told the BBC she was "very excited" at the prospect of Kurzel, who she called "an exceptional director", bringing his "visceral and urgent" style to a project she said had an "extraordinary" cast.

Yesterday it was also announced that British film director and actor Sir Kenneth Branagh will take his theatrical production of Macbeth, in which he stars opposite Alex Kingston as Lady Macbeth, to New York next summer.